soon the Octobrists and Central group, in order to secure a majority, found themselves bound to go with the opposition in many cases, in committee work, in budget questions, in international questions, in questions of popular education, in a number of religious issues, and sometimes even on constitutional points. The result was that in the second half of the life of the third Duma the Government turned their backs on the Octobrists. Mr Stolypin now tried to approach the Nationalists, the more Conservative group. By that time, rumours were rife again that a coup d'état was in preparation. The third Duma, however, was permitted to live up to the end undestroyed. But at the election for the fourth Duma fresh exertions were made by the Government in order to defeat the Octobrists, and it now became their turn to fall into opposition. The negative aim of the Government was to defeat the Octobrists, and this task was easy because the Octobrists had made themselves exceedingly unpopular in the country by their subservience to the Government in the third Duma. It was far more difficult to attain the positive aim: that of electing a Nationalist majority. The Octobrists were defeated, but there was nobody to take their place. There was no majority in the fourth Duma, as the Nationalists, even with Government aid, did not succeed in getting a majority. The opposition reappeared in slightly increased numbers, while the Octobrists, left to themselves and deprived of the element of discipline which they had owed to Government protection, fell to pieces. There were now three different groups, the central, the left and the right wing. With a composition like that, the
